Scott names agency heads

Gov. Rick Scott rounded out his administration today, naming three long-time state government workers as agency heads.

The appointments include a holdover from his predecessor Charlie Crist, a long-time legislative staffer and a former aide of his gubernatorial opponent Alex Sink.

Scott made Cynthia Lorenzo’s job as interim director of the Agency for Workforce Innovation permanent. Crist put Lorenzo in charge of the agency that oversees unemployment compensation in 2009. She’s worked in state government for more than six years, serving at the Department of Juvenile Justice and the state transportation department.

Mike Hanson will head up the troubled Agency for Persons with Disabilities, which for years had been running a deficit and at one time had a wait list of more than 18,000 Floridians seeking services. Hanson has been a health care guru for the state for more than three decades, serving under Gov. Jeb Bush and as a policy analyst in both the House and Senate. Most recently, Hanson was the staff director of the Senate’s health and human services budget committee.

Doug Darling, currently the governor’s deputy chief of staff and director of Cabinet affairs, will take over Scott’s new Department of Economic Opportunity. Darling was forced out as a top aide to former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink – who lost her bid for governor to Scott by a hair – over an audit that found his division lacking in internal controls. Darling also served at the departments of Environmental Protection and Education.